The present invention relates to a tone generation system composed of a plurality of processor devices connected to a network.
So-called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technique has heretofore been known, via which a plurality of musical instruments are connected with each other to constitute an electronic musical instrument network system. The MIDI standard is a common standard for transmitting automatic performance data etc., which allows performance data, such as a key code, to be transmitted, in a single direction, from a given one of a plurality of electronic musical instruments distributed in a network to another one of the electronic musical instruments. With the MIDI technique, each MIDI message is in the form of serial data and MIDI lines are wired to connect between the instruments in series, so that the MIDI lines would occupy a considerable space. Further, if any one of the MIDI lines is disconnected even at one point by accident or by error, no signal can be delivered beyond that point any longer, which would result in unwanted termination of tone generation. Further, once the MIDI lines are disconnected, wiring operation for restoring the connection would become very cumbersome and laborious.
Therefore, “mLAN” (musical Local Area Network) has been proposed as a musical instrument system using a network. The mLAN is a technique for transmitting digital audio/MIDI data using the IEEE1394 standard, which permits communication of digital audio/MIDI data of 256 channels or over by connecting between AV devices and/or electronic devices and a computer system via IEEE1394 interface. The mLAN defines commands for, for example, controlling individual AV devices and/or electronic devices and corporation among the devices on the basis of the “IEC61833-6 Audio and Music Data Transmission Protocol” that is a protocol for communicating audio/MIDI data via the IEEE1394 interface. With such an mLAN, complicated connections between a plurality of devices, which used to be made using analog cables. MIDI cables, etc., can be replaced with daisy-chain connections of IEEE 1394 cables to thereby greatly simplify the connections between the devices.
However, because the mLAN is in the form of daisy-chain connections, physically connecting a new device to a desired point of the network and then performing logical connection setting would involve extremely difficult operation. Further, because lines are wired to connect between the individual devices in series, the lines would occupy a considerable space. Further, if any of the lines is disconnected even at a single point by accident or by error, no signal can be delivered beyond that point any longer, which would result in unwanted termination of tone generation. Further, once the lines are disconnected, wiring operation for restoring the connection would become very cumbersome and laborious.
Further, in a network where a plurality of electronic musical instruments are distributively connected, performance control information is sent as a packet to a transmission path. However, if the packet is undesirably lost in the middle of the transmission, there would arise the problem that a receiving end may receive performance control information that should not be received and thus the receiving end may fail to operate normally. For example, if key-on data is lost, key-off data sent following the key-on data may be received although the corresponding key-on has not been received.
Further, “LAN” (Local Area Network) has been known as a network capable of connecting a new device to a desired point. The LAN is a computer network, such as an intranet, installed within a relatively limited area, and in recent years, such a LAN is built in an ordinary house as well. However, there presently exists no tone generator or other tone-generation-related device that can be connected directly to a LAN, and it has been impossible to build a musical instrument system using an ordinary form of network, such as a LAN. Further, because tone-generation-related devices capable of being connected to a network are fixed in function, it has been necessary to connect to a network a plurality of types of devices having necessary functions.
Further, for a device having a plurality of functions, such as an electronic keyboard instrument having three functions of a keyboard (operator unit), tone generator and speaker, settings are made such that tones are reproduced through communication among these three functions. Where such a device having a plurality of functions is connected to a network, there would be presented the problem that the functions of the connected device can not be handled on the network independently of one another.